captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. president obama took responsibility for the systemic failures that allowed a terror suspect to board a plane with an explosive. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight: analysis of the president's statement on the high-level review of security lapses, from two members of congress and two counter-terrorism experts.

>> lehrer: then, ray suarez updates the h1n1 flu pandemic and the vaccine campaign. >> this see -- flu season generally lasts until may and although flu is way down, we don't know what the future will hold. >> brown: we look at violence in professional sports after basketball player gilbert arenas is suspended for bringing guns into the locker room. >> lehrer: and gwen ifill talks to biographer joan biskupic about supreme court justice antonin scalia. >> he says i read text, i read the constitutional, i'm an originalist, i do not let my religious views come in. and i don't let any other personal views come in. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's pbs newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by:

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foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> lehrer: the official story of how the airline bomb plot eluded u.s. security was made public today, and at the white house, president obama ordered changes in the handling of information on potential threats. the report said the government had sufficient information to potentially disrupt the plot. it faulted u.s. intelligence for failing to focus more resources on the al qaeda group that claimed responsibility for the attempted attack. and it said the c.i.a. and the national counter-terrorism center did not search all available databases for the nigerian charged with the attempted bombing. newshour correspondent kwame

holman begins our coverage. >> holman: president obama stepped to the lectern in the white house state dining room two days after he sharply criticized u.s. intelligence for major failings. today, he elaborated: >> first, although our intelligence community had learned a great deal about the al qaeda affiliate in yemen-- called al qaeda in the arabian peninsula-- we knew that they sought to strike the united states and that they were recruiting operatives to do so, the intelligence community did not aggressively follow up on and prioritize particular streams of intelligence related to a possible attack against the homeland. second, this contributed to a larger failure of analysis, a failure to connect the dots of intelligence that existed across our intelligence community. third, this in turn fed into shortcomings in the watch- listing system, which resulted in this person not being placed

on the no-fly list, thereby allowing him to board that plane in amsterdam for detroit. in sum, the u.s. government had the information scattered throughout the system to potentially uncover this plot and disrupt the attack. rather than a failure to collect or share intelligence, this was a failure to connect and understand the intelligence that we already had. >> holman: as the president spoke, officials released declassified results of the investigation so far. among the new revelations: the 23-year-old nigerian suspect, umar farouk abdulmutallab, already was airborne when u.s. customs and border protection officials flagged him for extra screening. it was to have taken place once he landed in detroit. in light of such disclosures, mr. obama said it's clear a number of things need to be done: >> today, i'm directing a series of additional corrective steps across multiple agencies. broadly speaking, they fall into

four areas. first, i'm directing that our intelligence community immediately begin assigning specific responsibility for investigating all leads on high- priority threats so that these leads are pursued and acted upon aggressively-- not just most of the time but all of the time. we must follow the leads that we get, and we must pursue them until plots are disrupted. and that means assigning clear lines of responsibility. second, i'm directing that intelligence reports, especially those involving potential threats to the united states, be distributed more rapidly and more widely. we can't sit on information that could protect the american people. third, i'm directing that we strengthen the analytical process, how our analysis... how our analysts process and integrate the intelligence that they receive.

my intelligence advisory board will examine sifting through vast intelligence and data in our information age. and, finally, i'm ordering an immediate effort to strengthen the criteria used to add individuals to our terrorist watch lists, especially the no- fly list. we must do better in keeping dangerous people off airplanes, while still facilitating air travel. in short they will help the intelligence community do its job even better and protect american lives. and finally i'm ordering an immediate effort to strengthen the criteria used to add individuals to our terrorist watch list. especially the no-fly list. we must do better in keeping dangerous people off airplanes, while still facilitating air travel. >> holman: the security problems

the president outlined today have caused political headaches for the white house. there's been criticism of his national security team, especially homeland security secretary janet napolitano, who initially said the "system worked" in the airliner attack. >> now, at this stage in the review process, it appears that this incident was not the fault of a single individual or organization, but rather a systemic failure across organizations and agencies. moreover, i am less interested in passing out blame than i am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer, for, ultimately, the buck stops with me. as president, i have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails, it is my responsibility. >> it was a failure too connect, integrate and

understand the intelligence we had. we didn't followup and pry torize a stream of intelligence indicating that al qaeda a in a did arabian pen insurance lawsuit sought to strike our homeland because no one team or task force was assigned responsibility for doing that followup investigation. the intelligence fell through the cracks. this happened in more than one organization. >> brennan concluded by conceding the enormous challenges the national security team faces. >> in every instance, over the past year, the intelligence community, the homeland security community, the law enforcement community has done an absolutely outstanding and stellar job in protecting this homeland and disrupting plots that have been directed against us it was in this one instance that we did not rise to that same level of competence and success. and therefore the president has told us we must do better. i told the president today i let him down. i am the president's assistant for homeland

security and counterterrorism. and i told him that i will do better, and we will do better at the scene. >> secretary nap olo announced the deployment of at least 300 advanced imaging scanners at u.s. airports but she also said it's still difficult physically to screen passengers coming from overseas. one new propose one new proposal: a system for fast-tracking names on to a terrorist watch list. abdulmutallab was on a watch list, but his was just one of more than half a million names. al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula has claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing. today, government officials in yemen said abdulmutallab was originally recruited in london. the yemeni deputy prime minister said the suspect met with al qaeda operatives in shabwah province. and that meeting may have included the radical american- born cleric, anwar al-awlaki. he's also been linked to the

fort hood, texas, massacre. abdulmutallab is currently being held at a federal prison in michigan. he was indicted yesterday for attempted murder and other crimes. >> lehrer: four views now on the president's statement and review: richard clarke was the white house point man on counter- terrorism in the clinton administration and in the early days of the george w. bush administration. he's now a consultant. juan zarate held a similar post later in the bush administration. he's now with the center for strategic and international studies, and a consultant for cbs news. and from congress, california democrat anna eshoo serves on the house intelligence committee; and we hope to be joined by republican pete olson of texas. he is a member of the house homeland security committee.a- r. clarke, first of all, did you hear anything today that surprised you or shocked you , or words that some people said they might be so inclined with what came out today? with a lot of little things that shocked me.

i think the big thing that shocked me, that they said they did not have a system for following up threat reports and revolving them. you don't just have threat reports come in and you say isn't that interesting and then you move on and the next day you red more, you take the reports that come in every day and put them into a system to have resolution, to followup, find out if they are true, do something about it. there used to be a system to do that. the fact that they don't have one now and that they are instituting one now and that the president of united states has to order t i did find a little shocking. but overall, what was shocking was how well the administration did in frankly, openly and quickly examining its own shortcomings. from a public management perspective, this was really well done. >> lehrer: do you agree, mr. zarate? >> to a certain extent. i think dick is right. but i think what i found most telling was the fact that the administration laid bare the fact that there was strategic warning, that there was a threat growing from the al qaeda group in

yemen, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. and that that group, not only was a threat to our interests in yemen and to the yemeni government, but was already talking about and a aspiring to attack the homeland. and this is something we have been worried about for some time, that an al qaeda regional affiliate would not only be a threat regically -- regionally or locally but would become a platform to attack the united states that is why we are worried about american somalis moving into some ol -- somalia and getting training and perhaps coming back. so the fact that the -- intelligence community and counterterrorism community was actually aware of that growing intent and perhaps capability and their search for op ratives actually was surprising to me. because the failure then was to then say we have the strategic threat. what are the tactical pieces that we need to put together to may fit that intent and capability. >> lehrer: do you agree with that, mr. clarke that they had the information. they just didn't put it together? >> well, they had not only information about the

individual bomber, but as long since they had strategic warning. they sat with the president before christmas and said we have a new problem. it's something called al qaeda in the araan peninsula, aqap. it's in yemen. and they are planning attacks on the united states. so they knew the strategic context. and they didn't do, by their own admission, they didn't do the followup to say okay f that's true, what do we do tactically to find these guys. >> lehrer: let me ask congresswoman eshoo on this issue of the collection. the president said it, mr. brennan said it and these two gentlemen have also said it they had the information and that's a good thing. but the problem was the gap in connecting them. is that how you see it as well? >> i do. and i think that that is what is so stunning to the american people. that our intelligence community actually had pieces of this. in other words, there were warning signs, the red flags were out, the bells were ringing. and yet they were not

connected. what i am struck by is how forthcoming the president has been. to put the information out there on the table, to acknowledge that we do have shortcomings but very importantly, how he has directed the executive branch, the intelligence community in this instance and the corrections that need to be made. and i think that they are spot on. but i am more than detected that the president is angry about this. we were lucky because once again, average citizens are the ones that stepped in. but we can't rely on luck. and while they there were reforms adopted after our country was attacked, you know, we do have to look for needles in a hey stack. but we can't keep building hey stacks where we can't find things. and so the dot does have to be connected. i think the president was

more than serious. and i also think that it was important when he said, this not a time for partisanship but for citizenship. we all can do something here. and i hope that we will all make note of that. i think it's a very important thing that he said. i was certainly struck by it. >> lehrer: mr. clarke, you buy the idea that the president said and the congresswoman just underlined it as well, that this was not a problem involving individuals. this was a problem involving a system that didn't work rather than people who were incompetent or made the wong judgements, et cetera? >> i think what the white house said today there may have been a few people that made a few mistakes at low levels. but the system should have caught those mistakes. and there should have been -- i thought we had invested in software that would is caught these mistakes. and software, knowledge, management software that would have said there a piece of information over here and a piece over there. >> lehrer: go through that. how might that, if it had worked, what -- i don't mean

in minute detail but what would happen? >> so basically the new software is supposed to do something like this. it gets a piece of information. and it doesn't have to go out and find a human being to do this, an analyst. >> lehrer: let's say they found something about al qaeda in the yemen. >> in this case they find the name of this fellow from his father. and they say well he might be in yemen. the software should by itself go out and see is there any mention of a nigerian in yemen, number one. is there any mention of anybody with a name like this, two. and if the software had done that, they would have found him. because there was previous reporting. the two pieces of information, if you looked at them alone, they weren't shocking. but if you put the two pieces of information together, would you say aha!, this guy is the terrorist who is about to do something. i thought we had software that would do that, that could go into multiple database was a human in the loop. apparently we didn't. >> lehrer: did you think

that kind of software existed mr. zarate. >> that kind of software does exist in parts. but there are still databases that are segmented and where information is kept separate where you rely on human analysts to go through and pick out data that may be relevant. this underscores what the president was saying, which is that you need a system that has analysts and the system large, prioritizing with respect to the volumes of information that come in. people need to realize you get thousands of threats a day. the national counterterrorism center since the bush administration established it, has three times a day threats, interagencies processes to review the threats. has matrixs, so to dick's point there is a certain point of pryor at thisization but at the end of the day there a human factor. human analysts have to look at the information. there has to be a sense of priority and urgency to a certain extent. and what shocking here, i think, in what was reeel -- revealed. and i do could commend -- commend the administration for laying bare what they

have found, is the fact that you had the strategic threat and you had all of these bits and pieces. you had needles in the hey stake, not just a needle. and those needles weren't gathered in the context of this growing strategic threat. >> lehrer: congresswoman eshoo, from your perspective, member of the house intelligence committee with oversight of all of this we've been talking about, did you think until chris mass day that this kind -- christmas day that this kind of information, these kinds of dots would have been connected, either the combination of human input and human evaluation plus the software that richard clarke says he thought existed an maybe didn't? >> most frankly, i would not have been able to guarantee that they would be. because it is a very large, complex system. we have an enemy that is limber that is entrepreneurial. they have franchises in different parts of the world. they don't deal with lists of $550,000 names or an nctd c. they use the internet.

now here at home my congressional district is the home of silicon valley. we have technologies and are continuing to produce technologies that are able to take very large quantities of information and bring about what is needed. and i think that we are not where we need to be in terms of the technology inside our system. and i think that that is something that is going to be needed. and of course that always has to be coupled with human intelligence. nothing takes the place of that. >> lehrer: speak of systemic failures, we've had one up until now with congress phenomenon ol on -- olson who is in texas. and i understand now you have not been able to hear this entire discussion but you've heard, did you hear the last answer in this whole idea from your perspective as a member of congress, were you surprised by what the story that was

told today about what actually happened, what lead to this near disaster? >> yes, sorry for the technical difficulties. but i was surprised by the information which lead to basically this attack upon our country. again it's indicative of kind of a nine ten for lack of a better term mentality. where we did have the information in the intelligence community, but again didn't connect the dots. and let an individual whose wanted to harm our country with a bomb, get on an aircraft. and the only response we had at that moment was to have people waiting to greet him when he landed in detroit. and that's simply unacceptable. i look forward to working with the administration and my colleagues to make sure something like this never happens again. >> lehrer: congressman let me ask you this. you didn't hear them, but both mr. clarke and mr. zarate, right, sorry, and congresswoman eshoo said --

gave compliments to the president and the administration for coming out forthrightly now and saying what went wrong. as a republican, do you agree with him on that? >> i mean, i was happy that the president came out and stepped up to the plate and said that the buck stops with him. that's critically important that we get leadership from the top. and i applaud him for doing that. but again we need to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. we had all the information out there to connect these dots together. we had a father calling from his home in africa, calling an ambassador letting them know that my son is going someplace where i don't think he wants to go and i'm afraid of what he is going to do. and that is just one example of the information we had. but still, this individual, mr. abdulmutallab got on an aircraft with a bomb and god bless our country again that he didn't set it off when he tried to. >> lehrer: mr. zarate, see, i got it right then , are you about to fix this, about what everybody says. all right, now let's fix it.

do you have a feeling that it can be fixed and what the president outlined and what secretary napolitano, mr. brennan talked about will, in fact, fix it? >> i think the right direction and certainly the right steps in light of the current case and the current case study and the thing that were discovered that went wrong. i worry know that we not delude ourselves that there is a perfect system. >> lehrer: there is no such thing. >> there no such thing as a perfect system. and in particular when are you talking about watch lists and no-fly lists. we are still dealing with a name base system. largely relying on the fact that people use their real name when they check in, use their real passport. but we know that the bad guys are constantly innovating, constantly finding ways around our screening. may use aliases, false passports,. and so we have to have a dual system of intense intelligence gathering with the types of skraening that will allow us to find the hidden explosives. and no system is perfect, unfortunately. >> lehrer: how do you feel

about the fixes, mr. clarke? >> we've got a good system. it can be made better. the great news here is that the president of the united states is down in the weeds trying to make it better. i wish i had that when i was serving. but i think the scary news today is this al quite in the arabian peninsula has other people like this guy. >> lehrer: a lone guy, we haven't heard that much about. >> yeah, they have other what we call clean skins, people who we have no idea that they are involved. so their names are not in the database. aqap, apparently, has more of these people. they are not necessarily arabs. and they are still trying to attack the west outside of yemen. that's the big news. is that this is an ongoing threat. so we have to make the system better very quickly. >> lehrer: in a word, congresswoman eshoo and congressman olson, do you share mr. clarke's scareiness here? >> well, this is -- the most serious of situations because we're talking about

our national security. but whatever needs to be done, i believe that we have not only the capacity, we have the intelligence, we have the genius and we have the will. it will never be perfect but we can certainly improve upon it. and i think what the president has called for when implemented will go a long way toward that but we can't rest because the enemy is very smart. >> lehrer: okay, i think that is a yes then, congressman olson. >> did what richard clarke highity looed is that the scary part to you as well, that these people are still out there and they are going to try and try and try again? >> yeah, and ala in yemen is a growing problem. i was in afghanistan last month. and meeting with our troops there, talking with our personnel. they've done a good job beating back the al qaeda threat in that area. but it has moved. and it's moved to yemen. and that is critically important, becoming a strategic place we need to be involved in.

again the scary thing from my perspective is we had all the information. very eerily reminiscent of nine noon. we didn't put it together and we almost had a terrible tragedy that killed hundreds of americans. >> lehrer: thank you all four very much. again our apologies to you congressman olson that we got to you so late. thank you. >> that's my apology back to you, jim. thanks. >> lehrer: thank you. >> brown: and still to come on the newshour: is the swine flu coming back, and should you get vaccinated? a basketball star and his guns; and the life and constitution of supreme court justice scalia. that follows the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. hari. >> sreenivasan: there was another airline security incident overnight; this time, in miami. a delta air lines flight was ready to take off for detroit when a passenger began yelling, "i'm palestinian and i want to kill all the jews". the plane returned to the gate and the man was arrested. he was identified as mansor mohammed asad of toledo, ohio. f.b.i. officials said today there was no evidence of any terror plot.

it turns out a missing guard triggered the shutdown sunday night at liberty international airport in newark, new jersey. airport surveillance video was released today. it shows a guard leaving his security checkpoint. moments later, a man ducks under a rope into a secured area to say good-bye to a woman waiting for a flight. the security breach closed the newark terminal for six hours, delaying flights and scrambling schedules across the country. in brussels, belgium, today, members of the european union debated whether to use full body scanners at airports, but there were sharp divisions. at the same time, italy joined the u.s., britain and the netherlands and announced it will install the scanners soon. >> we have always said that the security comes before everything. the right to life for those who fly, for those who travel is a fundamental right that we want to protect. with the introduction of these instruments, these body scanners, we have decided as you have heard to introduce them at the

airports of milan, rome and venice, starting at a minimum with these. >> sreenivasan: 40 of the scanners are in use across the u.s., but there are plans to order dozens more. the afghan wing of al qaeda has claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed seven c.i.a. employees. the claim was made in a statement on a taliban web site. the bomber was a jordanian man, humam khalil abu-mulal al- balawi, who was believed to have turned against al-qaeda. his wife said today her husband was a martyr who hated the u.s. thousands of coptic christians rioted today in egypt. it started after seven people were shot dead as they left a midnight mass. they'd been celebrating the arrival of christmas on the coptic calendar. protesters began smashing hospital buses when officials delayed turning over the bodies for burial. the riots lasted several hours. christians make up about 10% of egypt's mostly muslim population. scores of people have been killed in tribal fighting in sudan. a regional official said today at least 139 tribal members died in clashes in remote southern

sudan. scores more were wounded. it is estimated tribal violence in the region killed some 2,500 people last year alone. the u.s. environmental protection agency wants stronger standards governing smog. lisa jackson proposed standards to cut down on ozone emissions. as a result, hundreds more counties would likely be in violation of air pollution rules, but they have up to 20 years to meet the new limits. former president bush had blocked the tougher standards. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average gained 33 points to close over 10,606. the nasdaq fell one point to close at 2,300. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the newshour's web site. but for now, back to jim. >> brown: next, a locker-room incident involving guns escalates into a suspension for national basketball association star gilbert arenas, and raises questions once again about violence and professional

athletics. >> brown: the n.b.a. acted 16 days after an incident at the verizon center in washington, d.c. arenas has admitted to bringing hand guns into the washington wizards team locker room, a violation of league policy and, possibly, of d.c. law. but he and teammate javaris crittenton deny they actually pulled guns on each other in a disagreement over a gambling debt. the n.b.a. and the wizards initially refrained from taking any action as they waited for criminal investigations to be completed. but on tuesday, commissioner david stern suspended arenas indefinitely and without pay. in a statement, he said:

>> brown: the "ongoing conduct" referred to a series of events. on new year's day, arenas wrote on his twitter page: "i wake up this morning and seen i was the new john wayne." then on tuesday of this week, arenas joked about commissioner stern: >> who do you fear more, stern or the actual authorities? >> i mean, stern is... is... mean... ( laughs ) but, uh... >> reporter: that same night, arenas was photographed pointing his fingers-- as if they were guns-- at his teammates before a game in philadelphia. the arenas story is just the latest example of athletes getting in trouble over guns. cleveland cavaliers guard delonte west was arrested in maryland last september, allegedly, for speeding on a motorcycle, and carrying loaded handguns and a loaded shotgun. and former national football league player plaxico burress is serving two years in jail after he accidentally shot himself with a handgun. he had no permit for the weapon. but there are also examples of athletes bouncing back from criminal violations. last fall, michael vick returned

to pro football after serving 19 months in prison on a dogfighting conviction. and for more on all this, i'm joined by: harry edwards, a professor emeritus of sociology at university of california, berkeley. he advises both the n.b.a. and the n.f.l.; and mike wise, sports reporter for "the washington post." mike wise, still in the -- fill in the picture as to who gilbert arenas is i understand that this stems from a gambling incident, what do we know? >> well, the fortunate thing about this, jeff s that bottom line, gilbert arenas is what i would say, the unique nba athlete. where he rolls his windows down. people are his friends. and he's not one of these elite guys that hides behind his tinted windows, so to speak. so -- so that part of it, he has no malice, gilbert arenas, you till can't bring loaded guns in the locker room. this -- this disagreement started in a card game on a

team flight back from phoenix during a west coast trip where javaras countries endon and arenas got into it. crittendon owed somebody else money and it escalated into gilbert arenas wanting to play a practical joke on crittendon he says and put loaded guns in front of his locker. and with the note pick one. javarss seeing this, not sure what was going on, according to two people in the room, we reported today in "the washington post," found his own gun. put in a clip, cocked the weapon and never ponted it at him but scared the bejesus ot of both of them and everybody that was in the locker room so that is where we stand today. >> reporter: all right, now harry edwards, does this strike you as an aberration when you look from a distance at this. or is it part of -- >> oh, absolutely not. >> reporter: what do you see? >> i had spoken with commissioner stern as early

as three and a half years ago concerning the evolution of this situation. the fact that both the nfl and the nba and other sports were going to inherit the problems and issues that were emerging in the traditional african-american community in particular. but as a part of the gun culture in american society in general. this situation has been exacerbated by the fact that you have 7% of the population of black males who are contributing to probably 43% of the people i prisoned in a society that imprisons a greater proportion of its population than any other in the world. these people, 98% of them are eventually released back into the community and they bring that prison culture back with them. and at a certain point, violence, guns, this kind of thing comes to be defined as cool. you need the gun. you have to have the gun. and it transfers into athletics. >> reporter: well, mike wise, you deal with a lot of these, especially young athletes. these are highly paid,

perhaps living in something of a bubble. do they live in a bubble? and how does that culture transfer? what do you see? >> well -- i think dr. edwards think the on the head better than anyone. there is almost, i want to say, faux gangster that has come about in many of the elite sporting events. and what it is, it's guys that aren't even from the hood, guys like gilbert. and gilbert will tell you himself i have been to the apartment complex where he grew up. his father showed it to me. this is a middle class apartment complex it is not down and out. so he wasn't raised in compton. he did not come from the hood. but there seems to be this connection, this need to remember that and instead of just saying well, it would be nice to live on the other side of the fence for once in a while. and i don't know where that comes from. and it needs to stop. >> reporter: professor go ahead, you work with the leagues, what can they do,

what kind of mentoring or what do they do to prevent it. >> well, first of all there is a tremendous amount of effort put into programs to address this issue. i know that both billy hunter and commissioner stern have focused on the whole issue of this gangster type of culture and imagery. the fact that guns and so forth will not be tolerated, cannot be tolerated, in these very passionate kinds of sports activities. we've been very, very lucky. schools have been shot up, fast food places, even mortuarys, churches, courthouses and so forth have all been subject to these shooting incidents. we have avoided that in sport more by luck than by effort. but both david stern and roger goodell in the nfl have made an effort to try to educate about this situation and made make unequivocally clear that they will come down judd iciously but they will come down very, very hard on any

gun issue and i think that is what david stern is going to do. >> reporter: mike wise, is this particular suspension, in this particular case, was that a surprise or is that what you see happening, commissioner attorney stepping down hard to make a point. >> well, the sad thing is i don't think commissioner stern would have acted if gilbert arenas had showed more contrition after the event. i think that much of his behavior after the incident exacerbated how he felt about public perception, for that matter. anden what the brady group, a gun control group obviously after the former chief of staff, that was shot during the reagan assassination attempt comes out against gilbert arenas making pock pistols, at some point david stern is shutting gilbert a recentas down to not further embarrass himself, the league or his organization. and i think he really would

have waited for the law to make their determination, if not for his behavior afterwards. >> i don't think -- yes, i don't think there is any question that commissioner stern was interested in finding out first of all, what the judicial disposition would be towards it far as the law was concerned. but again in conversations and correspondent that i have had with commissioner stern, he made it very, very clear that he was acutely aware of where this thing could lead. we have a situation in this country where over the first five years of the afghanistan and iraq wars, just under 5,000 americans were killed through all kinds of methods, of all genders, races and so forth. over that same five years close to 27,000 black males were killed in this society by gunfire alone. that meant that the average black male had a better chance of surviving in the streets of kabul or baghdad than in the streets of their urban community this culture

has evolved a standard of violence that commissioner stern was very much aware of. and despite the fact that he was waiting for the judicial disposition of this situation to work out, he was going to come down very hard. he made that clear early on. >> reporter: all right, we do have to leave it there. harry edwards and mike wise, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> lehrer: now, health officials are still urging americans to get vaccinated against the swine flu. ray suarez has our health unit update. >> we have 100 doses of injectible vaccine. >> suarez: the crowds that lined up for hours get an h1n1 vaccination in the fall at clinics nationwide are long gone, and the rush to get vaccinated has slowed, but is it all too soon? >> there is a sense that its over, but it's too soon to say that its over, because it is early in the flu season still, and h1n1 has been very difficult to predict. >> suarez: dr. thomas frieden of the centers for disease control

says there's still plenty of time to get vaccinated, plenty of vaccine for everybody, and there might be another wave of flu. >> flu is probably the least predictable of all infectious diseases. it is continuing to spread from person to person. it's continuing to make people sick, so there's still time to get vaccinated. it's only early january; flu season generally lasts until may. and although flu is way down, we don't know what the future will hold. >> suarez: and while the h1n1 vaccine is now easy to come by at this cvs minute clinic in virginia, this week, only a handful of people had turned up to take advantage of a replenished supply. >> lots of vaccine, fewer people. >> suarez: nurse practitioner anne poenhert says that's a stark contrast from the fall. >> in mid-october, minute clinic medical clinics around the country did receive a small supply of h1n1 vaccine, and we were able to give that to as many people as we could within the priority groups that the

c.d.c. determined. it was a really quick, incredible experience, where we would have as many as 100 to 500 vaccines in any clinic, and they would be gone in a day or two. >> suarez: john and toi schell-- both in their 60s-- said they hadn't been able to get the vaccine before because they weren't in any of the c.d.c.'s priority groups. but now that vaccine is being made available to everyone, they were eager to get vaccinated. >> we travel some, and we're also at church. you're just with a lot groups of people. and we felt it was important that we get vaccinated, not only to protect us, but to protect other people from catching it from us. >> suarez: but not everybody is scrambling to get their h1n1 shot, from anxious mothers... >> at the beginning, they don't tell you about the consequences, and i'm worried at a long-term problem. >> suarez: ... to college students. >> i'm not that worried about getting sick. >> suarez: and according to dr. michael osterholm, director of the center for infectious disease research and policy at the university of minnesota, that's not good. >> unfortunately, right now, most of the world believes that

h1n1 pandemic of 2009 is over and done with and they have written its obituary. we very well could be in for a third wave in the upcoming months. and unfortunately, because of that sense that it is over with, we are not getting people vaccinated. we estimate that, in this country alone, that at least half the population is still vulnerable to the disease, because they either weren't vaccinated or they weren't infected in the first two waves, so we have a job ahead of us to get vaccinated in a time when it doesn't appear that risk is imminent. >> suarez: america has experienced the h1n1 pandemic in a wide range of ways, from the relatively small number of cases across the upper midwest to the eastern hotspots of new jersey, delaware, and virginia. nearly 20% of the 435 students at episcopal high school in alexandria, virginia, got the virus. they're back now after winter break. how many of you are sure you had h1n1?

how many of you got the vaccine when it was available? >> i got it after. >> suarez: they all live on campus. many headed home when they got sick, others went to the clinic to convalesce. >> so, from the middle to late in october, we filled nearly to capacity on a couple of occasions. >> suarez: dr. bruce kraut is the school's physician. so when your numbers started to rise, you had to operate like a little hospital. lets take a look at one of these rooms. >> we doubled the capacity using the bunk beds system. during our spike in h1n1 activity, we essentially filled these 24 beds on a couple of occasions. >> suarez: after repeated messages home and lectures for faculty and students, 60% of the student body got the vaccine. and kraut says he wishes he could get it higher still, in case another wave of flu breaks. with plenty of vaccine available, the new recipients are coming one at a time.

and luckily, none of the students who came down with the virus had to be hospitalized. so today, at episcopal, right there with the oil and vinegar on the dining room table, hand sanitizer. but the urgency to use it seems to have worn off. in geneva, right before new year's eve, the director general of the world health organization had an upbeat report of the state of play in many countries. >> the long overdue influenza pandemic is so moderate in its impact, it's probably the best health news of the decade. >> suarez: there have been some 47 million cases of h1n1 nationwide, and while for some older americans, h1n1 has caused severe illness, many people over 60 have an immunity from earlier flus. >> but for children and young adults, the rate of death is at least five times higher that regular flu season. and for children, at least, it

has been as bad as the 1968 pandemic. so, by all means, it has not been a 1918, it has not been a 1957, so far. but it's a disease that has made many people sick, many of them severely ill and has, sadly, killed more than 10,000 americans. >> suarez: nearly 1,000 of those who have died are children. so, has h1n1 lived up to the scary advance billing that came roaring out of mexico in the spring, or is it a variety of flu that was easy to catch but didn't really turn out to be virulent? >> this pandemic was much more selectively hitting younger populations and causing the kinds of illnesses we have not seen in my public health career. >> suarez: and osterholm says if you consider the premature deaths among young flu sufferers, not only is the impact magnified... >> it is very clear that this pandemic has been much, much more severe than any seasonal flu years we've had in modern history, and actually begins to have impact like that we saw

with previous pandemics in 1957 and 1968. >> suarez: professor osterholm and dr. frieden are uncertain about a third wave of disease, and won't rule it out. they strongly agree on prevention over a roll of the dice. >> get vaccinated. >> get your h1n1 vaccine. >> suarez: hospitals coped, schools managed, vaccine producers pushed millions of new doses out the door. h1n1 is still out there; so is the seasonal flu. both will still be a threat for months to come. >> lehrer: finally tonight, a new look at a pivotal supreme court justice. gwen ifill talked to a reporter who has been covering antonin scalia on the bench for more than two decades. >> ifill: joan biskupic, the author of life an morning of life of antonin scalia, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, gwen. >> ifill: it is so interesting, everybody thinks they know what they believe about antonin scale yag, what go we know about

him that is right and wrong. >> well, certainly very conservative but how he became that conservative, many people don't knowment they don't know the kind of household he grew up in. very strict roman catholic. the son of a man who was a translator, a textualist who looked at documents and took them by their words which the justice now does to strong degree in his own life. he was an only child and not only was he the only child of two striving italian americans, he was the only offspring of his generation. his mother was one of seven, no cousins, no other children there his father one of two, so he grew up someone who was quite the center of attention which can be quite enabling, you would think you should always be the center of attention, but also a burden. so he was a young boy and became a man who felt the need to prove himself. >> ifill: how did he get that nick name nino. >> well, when you have a name like antonin, and he was named after his grandfather who was

antonino, so nino became an easy nick name from that. >> ifill: you have been covering the supreme court and justice scalia is not one known to give interviews but you got to him talk to you for this book. >> i did. in fact he at first wouldn't. he said, he acknowledge tdz that we had a rocky relationship over my two decades covering the court which you are going have with your zubts often. and he said talk to my colleagues, talk to my family, talk to, you know, former clerks but i'm not talking to you. but in time what happened, as i got into his personal story and found lots of good information in judicial archives, immigration archives, his home in trendton, new jersey and then where he grew up in queens, we started swapping information. and one thing lead to another and hi about a dozen sit-down on the record interviewss with him. >> ifill: you say immigration, are you talking about at ellis island business his father came in through ellis island. his father came to america as a young teenager knowing hardly any english.

and then went on to get a ph.d in romance languages at columbia university and taught for three decades. and his father was quite a force in his life. so tracing back that story and the striving immigrant story was quite helpful to coming to understand justice scalia. >> ifill: you talk about the forces in his life. we know him now as perhaps the world's most famous conservative, originalist, unyielding. >> uh-huh. >> ifill: where did that come from? >> you know, his own father was pretty unyielding. and was someone who read texts. he actually translated a lot of texts as a professor of romance languages. he grew up in a strict roman catholic family. again, the striving first generation family. no one remembers him in his past as being anything other than conservative. and you know when you say to him justice scalia when did you first become an originalist, he will say it is like saying when did you first start eat -- --, he doesn't remember not being an originalist and knows there is a prejor difficult

cast sometimes to it. >> ifill: what does that mean. >> to define it for people, someone who takes an originalist approach to the constitution looks back to the 18th century drafters and how they understood the law and how they wanted it understood at that time. rather than to play it -- apply a 21st century overlay to it as, for example, the late william brennan famously did to think of it as a living, evolving constitution. and on the current court justice steven brier embodies that a lot in the way he talks about how the constitution should be read to meet society's needs today. what justice scalia says to that is if you want to meet society's needs today and it is not in the constitution, pass a law. i'm not standing in your way, pass a law, do it legislatively. >> ifill: have to say i was really surprised to discover his best friend on the court is one of the court's most liberal members justice ginsburg. >> yes, quite a feminist, a woman who really made her name in terms of equal rights as an advocate for the aclu, no less, and then now comes on to the court. and is a liberal.

as justice skillia is certainly not. but what she says, gwen, is i love nino although i would like to strangle him sometimes. >> ifill: we're all familiar with the situations where that might be true. i want you to read a little section of the book which tells us a little bit about the way in which justice scalia behaves on the bench. he is very talkative. he is very lively and he's quite the jokes ster. >> okay, lels's see. to some extent scalia's behavior on the bench was just an exaggerated form of what other justices were trying to do with their own querys, argue with each other, something that occurs surprisingly little off the bench. mostly, however, scalia's frequent and sharp interventions seem the result of an irresistable impulse. that's him. he is always sort of impulsing all over. his appetite for debate was so strong that he could hardly stop himself from entering the frey. when he heard counsel give confused arguments or arguments he thought wrong he jumped in. when he heard a question from a colleague go unanswered, he leaped too. some of this was just because time was short.

and he believed should not be wasted on bad argumentation. some of it seemed to show him as the schoolboy who knew the answer and blurted it out. now without the need to raise his hand for permission. even though he had gone to, you know, he was raised in an era some catholic school, some public schools where you really had to mind the teacher there something about him that doesn't seem to mind the teacher. >> ifill: but you mention his catholicism, a very big part of who he is. and also shapes what he believes as well. >> it does. in fact, i, there a chapter as you know that talks about the "passions" of his mind. it looks at his great passion for roman catholicism. in fact, the old-fashioned roman catholicism. he likes to say that vatican ii was not on his hit parade. he thinks the people should be praying the rosary, going to all the holy days. >> ifill: he was rather distanced to find a parish that suits his. >> i love his mother-in-law's comment to him, don't you people live around churches because they were always driving to find the right kind of church and at best often the latin mass. but he also has a certain

passion for the repudiation of "roe versus wade" and i pair those two but i let him say that despite his seriousness about religion which will acknowledge he is very serious about his religion, that his decisions on abortion and the separation of church and state really and driven by those. he says i read text. i read the constitution. i'm an originalist. i do not let my religious views come. in and i don't let any other personal views come in. now --. >> ifill: did you believe that. >> well, what i do is i let critics respond to that and i think face t he's very conservative. it's hard to see that despite f he was of a different religion or denomination that he wouldn't feel as passionately against row, v wade but his roman catholicism is in the picture in terms of what many critics feel. >> ifill: he is how old? >> 73. >> ifill: no signs of retirement? >> no signs of retirement. although at one point i said to his wife, now he is in good health, right. and there was enough of a pause that i got a little nervous. he does still smoke.

he smokes marlboro lights, he smokes, drinks, eats a lot. but his parents lived into their 8 0s. and he seems vigorous. so i think he has at least a decade more on the court. >> ifill: legacy? >> well, you know that is a good question. because he certainly has been a force. but can a force that is so extreme to one side really endure. i'm sure his great writing will endure. but will what he says in the law endure. justice ginsburg his close friend on the court thinks not. >> ifill: joan biskupic, author of american original, injure book about justice antonin scalia, great read. thank you very much. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day: the administration reported intelligence agencies had sufficient information that could have let them disrupt the airliner bombing plot. president obama said, ultimately, the failure to stop the attack is his responsibility. the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari.

>> sreenivasan: npr's julie rovner explains the issues at stake as the house and senate try to reconcile their competing health care reform bills. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff. >> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm jeffrey brown. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks, among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: >> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what if that energy came from an energy company? every day, chevron invests $62 million in people, in ideas-- seeking, teaching, building. fueling growth around the world to move us all ahead. this is the power of human energy. chevron. >> this is the engine that

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